Hooray for pysanky!

For years and years, I've been writing pysanky at Eastertime. For those not in the know, pysanky are Ukrainian eggs decorated using a wax resist method. It requires patience, attention to detail and a good dose of persnickety-ness to do them well. Fortunately, I have all those qualities in spades (granted, the patience is an on-again, off-again thing with me!).

I made the egg in the above photo in March 2008 and I can't wait until Good Friday to do a new batch. I bought ten different coloured dyes from the local craft store and I just know some fabulous eggs are ready to be created!

Just in case you haven't seen enough pysanky yet, here's one with a rooster design that I did back in 2005 to share with my primary students. Yes, I have even taught pysanky to five-year-olds!

In 1492...

Today, I taught a Gr 4/5 class that was preparing for a test on explorers. I was teaching basic studying skills; how to predict questions and write out flashcards (surprisingly, not all of them got the concept of question on one side, answer on the OTHER side!).

One boy was preparing a few key facts about Christopher Columbus (country of origin: Italy, area explored: Bahamas, Cuba) and he got stuck on date of exploration. "1497?" he guessed. I told him he was close, but said, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." "That's what the sub we had last week said!" he exclaimed. What a coincidence!

22. Replace annoying blinds in front room.

Our old cloth vertical blinds that were too long for the window and dragged on the sill every time you opened the blinds are finally gone! Goodbye annoying blinds and hello beautiful new wooden horizontal blinds! The new blinds are stylish and functional. Blinds that actually block out the light of the streetlamp that's directly outside the bedroom, what an idea!

The front bedroom before (note the gap-tooth effect where one blind had broken):


The front bedroom after:


Master bedroom before (note the two different types of blinds):


Master bedroom after (ah, consistent window treatments!):


Sliding glass door before:


Sliding glass door after (sorry, I didn't get a shot with the blinds down):